Subj : Re: The Idiots Guide to Meshtastic
To   : N2QFD
From : Warpslide
Date : Fri Mar 08 2024 04:20 pm

On Sunday February 18 2024, N2QFD said the following...

 NQ> The Idiots Guide To Meshtastic - Long Range Comms!

 NQ> https://youtu.be/N3FXej9fqIk?si=AlOt2zAhn5gaouM3

 NQ> I was wondering if anyone has been playing with these out there in
 NQ> there wild? T hey look like a pretty super EMCOM tool but just
 NQ> generally fun stuff. It's one o f those moments where I think we need
 NQ> to not be held back by our license. I of

I watched this video when you posted & then a couple of his follow-up videos.  
I might have "accidentally" bought one of these Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 thingies 
from heltec.org after watching.

It arrived from China yesterday and I spent a bit playing with it.  There isn't 
anyone in range of my house (at least with the included antenna), so I drove to 
the top of the escarpment this afternoon and was pleased to pick up a bunch of 
nodes.  At first I was surprised by the number of nodes I was seeing, then I 
noticed a lot of these are marked "Via MQTT".

It looks like there's a HAM in downtown Hamilton (VE3BNW) who has a node setup 
that I was able to see and most of this was coming from him.  Ignoring the MQTT 
nodes I see a few from Toronto as well, none of the trace routes I did answered 
in time before I had to leave, but it was neat this tiny antenna & device can 
do.

I wonder if a yagi pointed in his direction from my house could reach him, it's 
about 14km as-the-crow-flies but there's a lot between us, and he's quite a bit 
lower (down the escarpment).  If I had to put a tower up it wouldn't be worth 
it.heltec.org


Jay

.... What's the best smelling insect? A deodor-ant
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20240306
 * Origin: Northern Realms (21:3/110)

.